Health care providers should periodically assess older adults for social isolation and loneliness, and initiate potential preventive interventions for individuals at elevated risk due to life events, such as loss of a significant relationship or geographic move, according to a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Among other actions, the report recommends including the assessment data in the patient’s electronic health record; developing a more robust evidence base on risk factors and effective interventions; measuring social isolation and loneliness in national health surveys; raising public awareness about the health impacts; strengthening health professions training on the issue; and partnering with social service providers to address it. “Though hard to measure precisely, strong evidence suggests that, for older adults, social isolation and loneliness are associated with an increased likelihood of early death, dementia, heart disease and more,” the authors note

Related News Articles

Headline
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is following up on a previous alert of an outbreak of suspected fungal meningitis in Texas, which is now…
#HealthCareInnovation Blog
In the fall of 2021, two years into the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., nearly 80% of adults said they had heard “at least one of eight different false…
Blog
Health care equity is a top priority at Luminis Health, a non-profit health system in Maryland. As we strive to become a national model for justice, equity,…
Blog
My first calling is as a nurse. As a young girl in the 1960s, I watched the actress Diahann Carroll on the television show "Julia" on our black and white…
Headline
In part 2 of a new AHA video moderated by Leon D. Caldwell, AHA senior director of health equity strategies, health equity leaders and community stakeholders…
Headline
Hear how the results of a community health needs assessment in Hardeman County, Tennessee, spurred local hospitals to tackle food insecurity with innovative…